CES 2017: IGN India's favourite gaming tech

Our favourite pieces of tech from CES 2017.

By
Shunal Doke

The Consumer Electronics Show is a yearly event that, while focusing heavily on technology, often tends to be a fun things to keep a track of. This is no doubt thanks to the often-times insane new technology we get to get our first looks at. CES 2017 is no different, and while there have been many awesome new pieces of tech for us to ogle at, be it a robotic-based bike or a refrigerator with a touch screen, there were also quite a few pieces of gaming tech that got me excited. Here are my favourite announcements and showcases from CES 2017, especially for gaming.

Samsung's curved monitors

Having gone full circle from the days of old-school curved CRTs, curved displays have been a pretty big deal over the last couple of years. While we've mostly seen this fad in TVs, it looks like Samsung is finally looking to bring it over to desktop computers. Samsung's curved monitors will certainly look fancy, but considering how the Korea-based company also tends to make some of the best display panels out there, their curved PC monitors will certainly be something to look forward to, especially as an option that turns out to be considerably more affordable than gigantic curved TVs.

Samsung Notebook Odyssey

While Samsung has made quite a name for itself in the smartphone market, we've yet to see the company dip its toes into gaming hardware. The Notebook Odyssey might just be one of the biggest steps we've seen from the company. Like I mentioned before, Samsung does make some rather excellent display panels, and gaming hardware isn't really all that difficult to mess up. All of these factors come together to make me eagerly look forward to just how well Samsung will be able to compete with the likes of Asus and Dell.

Razer triple-screen laptop

CES is often a showcase of some truly insane technology; a philosophy that Razer seems to have taken to heart. Based off the current high end version of the Razer Blade gaming laptop, the triple-screen laptop, dubbed Project Vallerie, has basically attached two more 4K displays to the sides of the laptop. The laptop doesn't expect you to manually pull out the displays, however. The machine is equipped with a bunch of motors which let it automatically push out the extra displays whenever you might need it. Of course, this will come with a bunch of caveats, massive weight and poor battery life being the major causes for concern, it will still be quite a trip playing a game or even editing a video on Project Vallerie.

HDMI 2.1

While 4K is still just catching on in the world of gaming, a new standard for HDMI is aiming to bring about even more pixels. The HDMI 2.1 specification has considerably-increased bandwidth, allowing it to push enough data through its cables to bring to us 8K resolutions. Of course, wide-scale adoption of HDMI 2.1 is still quite far off, especially when you take into consideration the high price of first-generation tech, but eventually, we do have quite a bit to look forward to.

Wireless VR

Virtual reality is still in its early stages, and while adoption has been on the lower side of the scale, we can't really deny how awesome gaming with an Oculus Rift or a Vive is. As technology moves forward, however, we can look forward to improvements to existing tech that we wouldn't normally have anticipated. The development of wireless virtual reality is one of these improvements that seems obvious now that you think about it, but would otherwise have sounded impossible because of the sheer amount of data transmitted through cables. The lack of wires on next-gen VR headsets will make room-scale VR experiences much easier to play around with.

Nvidia Shield TV

Nvidia's Shield game streaming service, while not exactly a heavily sought-after feature, has still been a nifty thing to have. With its new Shield TV, Nvidia hopes to replace products like the Steam Link and maybe even HTPCs. It comes with Steam pre-installed, letting you access all of the games installed on your gaming PC and streaming them over your home Wi-Fi. Coupled with a decent controller, the Shield TV might finally succeed in bringing PC gaming to the living room where many others have tried and failed.

What technology did you like from CES 2017? Let us know in the comments below!